Bastion

thoughts were hard enough to bear; he didn’t think he’d be able to take their actual fear and Jakyr’s pain. If this was bad for him, it was much worse for them, in the dark and cold and with NO idea what was going on—
    Oh, wait . . .
    :Amily. First part went fine. Waiting on the second part.:
    He caught her start of surprise, then left her mind as she whispered his news to the others. All right. The Sleepgivers weren’t within that area, so, he had to expand . . .
    He knew immediately when he had found them, which was . . . mere heartbeats after moving his shields a little more outward. There they were, overhead, and their talismans were like sullen pools of stagnant water. But they weren’t doing anything to guard the thoughts of their bearers.
    “I got them. They don’t know I’m watching,” he breathed, as if the mere act of speaking might alert them.
    “Good.” Bey sighed. “Oh, cousin—”
    “Don’t start,” Mags said, cutting him off. “Try finding yourself a nice Blessed girl and raising your own. Or teach her to be like Amily, so she’s your partner instead of something you keep in the women’s quarters all the time.”
    “...what an interesting idea,” Bey replied, after a long pause. “It is one I shall definitely consider.”
    Mags had settled into being as passive and receptive as he could manage—and with all the practice he’d had of late, he evidently made no more impression on the talismans than if he’d been a rook in a nearby tree. Once again, having shared Bey’s thoughts had taught him a level of patience he’d never had before. He was able to . . . to relax, if that was the right word. To enter into a state where it didn’t matter how long it took for something to happen, because he knew it would, and he only had to wait for it. It might have been harder if he’d been hungry, thirsty, or uncomfortable, but he was none of these things.
    It was possible, however, to track the passing of time by the changing light outside the cave. So it was, he thought, about noon—the sun was glaring down on the snow out there—when the Sleepgivers finally started to get restless, cautiously looking over the edge of the drop, and muttering to each other.
    “They’re getting uneasy, Bey,” Mags reported. The thoughts he picked up were a mix of concern and exasperation—although the concern was more along the lines of why haven’t they reported back, than I hope nothing has happened to them. There were also touches of the same contempt for each other that Bey had for them.
    “Huh. No love lost there,” he said aloud.
    Bey snorted. “It is as I told you. We do not foster bonds among each other, only the bond that a man has to the House, and to the Shadao. Are they considering sending another lot?”
    “They’re starting to talk about it.” It was hard waiting for thoughts to become urgent enough to pass over to him from behind the barriers that even people who were not Mindspeakers had. “They seem to think there was an accident. They’re talking like they think the first three fell down a hole and broke something.”
    “Oho!” There was malicious humor in Bey’s voice now. “Well, then, that changes my plan, a trifle. I am going to the chimney to see if I can convince the others there has been an accident. Wait, and worry not when you hear sounds.”
    :Amily, Bey’s trying something. Don’t you folks be worried if you hear noises.:
    He turned his attention back to the Sleepgivers just in time for Bey to start moaning at the chimney, and babbling words in his own tongue.
    It took them a while to hear it; it took them a while longer to realize it was coming from the same place that smoke and cooking smells had been coming from. But when they figured it out and gathered around the spot to listen, their contempt was the one thing that united them. Mags wished he could Mindspeak with Bey the way he could with Amily, but the talisman he wore made that impossible.
    After a while, the sounds faded, as if the “victim” had lapsed into unconsciousness. Bey returned from out of the darkness. “Well?” he asked.
    “It worked. They’re sending down more. Something else, Bey; the reason there’s so many of them is that’s four separate groups, all figuring on getting me and impressing the Shadao. One group’s under the Shadao’s orders direct, two are from factions, and one’s your followers.”
    “My followers! Interesting! Before I left, I had